Ken Smith
Kenneth John Smith (4 December 1938 - 27 June 2003) was an English poet. Life Smith was born in Rudston, Yorkshire, the son of a farm labourer, and had an itinerant childhood. He attended Leeds University and studied under Geoffrey Hill; Tony Harrison and Jon Silkin were fellow students at the time.Ken Smith (1938-2003), The Poetry Archive. Web, Mar. 2, 2014. He married Annie Minnis in 1960; they had one son and two daughters, but the marriage dissolved. With Silkin, Smith co-edited Stand magazine, from 1963 to 1972. He won a Gregory Award for his first pamphlet of poetry in 1964, and had his first full eollection published in 1967. In 1969 Smith took his family to the [[United States, where he was writer in residence at Slippery Rock State College in Pennsylvania, College of the Holy Cross, and Clark University in Massachusetts. His second collection, Work/Distances, was published in Chicago in 1972. He returned to Endland in 1973.Jon Glover, Ken Smith, The Guardian, 3 July 2003. Web, Mar. 2, 2014. Smith taught at Leeds University as a Yorkshire arts fellow from 1976 to 1978. In 1978 he began publishing with Bloodaxe Books, which would publish his work for the rest of his life. During the next decades he attracted a wider readership, and He remarried in 1981, to the poet and artist Judi Benson; he thus became stepfather to her son. From 1985 to 1987 he was writer in residence at Wormwood Scrubs prison, an experience that formed the basis of his prose account of prison life, Inside Time.Ken Smith (Kenneth John Smith) Biography (1938–2003), JRank.org. Web, Mar. 2, 2014. He died from Legionnaire's Disease, contracted on a trip to Cuba. Recognition * 1964 - Eric Gregory Award * 1998 - Cholmondeley Award Publications Poetry *''Eleven Poems''. Leeds, UK: School of English, University of Leeds, 1964. * The Pity. London: Cape, 1967. *''A Selection of Poems by Ken Smith''. Gillingham, UK: Arc, 1969. *''Work, Distances: Poems''. Chicago: Swallow Press, 1972. *''Frontwards in a Backwards Movie''. Todmorden, UK: Arc, 1975. *''Able Baker Charlie Delta Epic Sonnets''. Newcastle upon Tyne, UK: Bloodaxe, 1981. *''Fox Running''. Newcastle upon Tyne, UK: Bloodaxe, 1981. *''Burned Books''. Newcastle upon Tyne, UK: Bloodaxe, 1981. *''The Poet Reclining: Selected poems, 1962-1980''. Newcastle upon Tyne, UK: Bloodaxe, 1982. *''Terra''. Newcastle upon Tyne, UK: Bloodaxe, 1986. *''Wormwood''. Newcastle upon Tyne, UK: Bloodaxe, 1987. *''The Heart, the Border''. Newcastle upon Tyne, UK: Bloodaxe, 1990. *''Tender to the Queen of Spain''. Newcastle upon Tyne, UK: Bloodaxe, 1993. *''Wild Root''. Newcastle upon Tyne, UK: Bloodaxe, 1998. *''Shed: Poems, 1980-2001''. Newcastle upon Tyne, UK: Bloodaxe, 2002. *''You Again: Last poems, and other words''. Tarset, Northumberland, UK: Bloodaxe, 2004. Non-fiction *''Inside Time'' (with Dave Wait). London: Harrap, 1989. *''Berlin: Coming in from the cold''. London: Hamish Hamilton, 1990. Edited *''Klaonica: Poems for Bosnia'' (edited with Judi Benson). Newcastle upon Tyne, UK: Bloodaxe, 1993. *''Beyond Bedlam: Poems written out of mental distress'' (edited with Matthew Sweeney). London: Anvil, 1997. Except where noted, bibliographical information courtesy WorldCat.Search results = au:Ken Smith, WorldCat, OCLC Online Computer Library Center Inc. Web, Mar. 2, 2014. See also *List of British poets References External links ;Poems *Ken Smith at PoemHunter (9 poems) *Ken Smith at AllPoetry (10 poems) ;Audio / video *Ken Smith (1938-2003) at The Poetry Archive ;About *Ken Smith at Bloodaxe Books *Ken Smith at the University of Leeds *Ken Smith obituary, The Guardian *Brad Evans interviews Ken Smith at The Poetry Kit, 2000. Category:1938 births Category:2003 deaths Category:British poets Category:People from the East Riding of Yorkshire Category:Alumni of the University of Leeds Category:Cholmondeley Award winners Category:20th-century poets Category:English-language poets Category:English poets Category:Poets Category:English academics